🗓️ What’s Up Next
Congress
The House and Senate are in session this week.
The PA General Assembly
The House and Senate are doing budget hearings and will not be back in regular session until the end of March.
Want a deeper dive?
If there’s a topic you’re interested in our analysis of, feel free to drop us a line. We’ll be doing deeper dives on the big stuff as it happens, but we’re always happy to hear what you want to know.
The State of the Union
As usual, the annual president’s address dominates headlines. The State of the Union functions as a pulse check on the nation’s top priorities—or should. This year, President Trump’s remarks predictably focused on his wins, including the One Big Beautiful Bill, global tariffs, and his stance on immigration. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger gave the official Democratic rebuttal, and some Democrats skipped the address altogether, opting instead to attend alternative programming on the National Mall.
While House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged members to “sit in silent defiance or attend alternative programming”, the night was not without heckling or shouting—a new norm that frustrates the leadership on both sides of the aisle. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was escorted out barely two minutes into the address after unfurling a sign in protest of Trump’s now-deleted Truth Social post, of a video of Former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama depicted as apes. Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) both shouted back at Trump during his remarks about immigration.
Here’s a breakdown of everything else that was in Trump’s State of the Union Address, and there’s more down in the “Pennsylvania Impact" section.
What’s Going on in Congress
The winter wonderland on Monday canceled congressional votes, with much of the northeast blanketed in snow. In major legislative news, it doesn’t look like the GOP conference is on track to pass another reconciliation bill like some had hoped. There are reports that the GOP is hoping to add to a list of accomplishments before a primary midterm election in November, but that the party can’t make a determination on what to put in the bill.
Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) maintains that healthcare reform is the most critical issue Americans are facing. Some Republicans, like Scott, are hoping for a way to funnel money to pay for insurance premiums into accounts directly to Americans, while other members of the party, like Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), are seeking to revive the enhanced ACA subsidies.
According to Capitol Hill insiders, the Senate plans to move on next to the bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act, which passed unanimously out of the Banking Committee with 24 votes. The legislation addresses housing affordability, including provisions that “boost housing supply, modernize financing options, reduce regulatory barriers, promote economic mobility, and enhance program oversight and coordination”.
The DHS Shutdown
It’s difficult not to miss the news about the ongoing DHS shutdown, but we’ll try to summarize it for you, as well as cover where any legislation stands. So far, the Department of Homeland Security has suspended the TSA-run Global Entry program and had planned to do the same for TSA PreCheck, though they quickly walked back on the statement after the backlash was swift and severe. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, has announced a pause in all “non-emergency recovery work” and has let members of Congress know they will no longer be given courtesy airport escorts.
As the partial shutdown stretches into its twelfth day, TSA, FEMA, Secret Service, and the Coast Guard will not receive paychecks at the end of the week. The White House and Democrats have listed out—in some cases, opposing—demands for changes to ICE operations in order to end the shutdown. Tom Homan, Trump’s “Border Czar”, was sent to Minnesota to assess the situation and returned with official recommendations to the White House and Congress, most of which aligned with Trump’s goals. They included equipping agents with body cameras—something Noem and Trump have agreed to— and requiring federal officers to “clearly display their badge and other adequate law enforcement identifiers” while carrying out operations.
Meanwhile, on the list of changes that Democrats demand be made to ICE operations before considering ending the partial shutdown is a sticking point for both parties: unmasking agents. Democrats are calling for agents to be barred from covering their faces, and to “conduct themselves like other national and local law enforcement agencies”. There is also a call to tighten warrant requirements. The GOP is not on board with any of that.
It appears then that Congress is no closer to ending the partial shutdown than when it began, and there’s no telling how long that will remain the case. ICE operations are funded in part by the One Big Beautiful Bill, and so some lawmakers don’t see the merit in arguing too hard if operations aren’t interrupted. Other agencies, however, are running out of funding and will have a negative impact on the American public if funding remains lapsed.
The Sector Breakdown
Tech/AI: Trump touted AI investment during the State of the Union, but the biggest takeaway is the negotiation between the White House and major tech companies regarding the voter concern of rising electricity costs. Companies, Trump says, will be obligated to provide their own power on a separate grid.
Health/Food: President Trump’s executive order promoting the production of an oft-used herbicide prompted major backlash from RFK Jr’s “MAHA” followers. In response, RFK Jr. has sided with the administration in claiming the herbicides, which he previously called “carcinogens”, are necessary for food production.
Cybersecurity: Another casualty of the DHS shutdown is the CISA, or the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The CISA announced that it will be cutting back on its usual duties, including the physical assessment of critical infrastructure networks, simulation exercises, and more. CISA acknowledged that pulling back from these responsibilities could have a detrimental impact on national security, writing that as the lapse in funding stretches on, “CISA’s lack of involvement in these key areas will lead to a future threat or an increased area of weakness.”
Labor: Trump touted the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” and its supposed impact on the economy during the State of the Union, including his “no tax on tips”.
A Brief Interlude on Transportation
On Tuesday, the House rejected a high-profile piece of legislation passed unanimously by the Senate in response to the deadly midair collision last year between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk Helicopter. The crash over the Potomac prompted the Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform, or ROTOR, Act to establish “new requirements for virtually all aircraft and helicopters to use Automatic Dependent Surveillance — Broadcast (ADS-B)”. The technology is used to broadcast an aircraft’s location. Despite the well-intention, the legislation fell short of the two-thirds majority it needed to pass.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) stated that the legislation is “a blanket mandate that limits the aviation community to one technology”. The issues seemed to be two-fold, with the concern about aviation being limited to one technology, alongside concern from the Pentagon about the technology being used to broadcast the location of military helicopters and planes. In response, Chairman Graves plans to bring up a House-led aviation safety bill called the “ALERT Act” in committee next week.
The Pennsylvania Impact
Last week, the Supreme Court shot down Trump’s sweeping tariffs in a 6-3 ruling, a significant setback for the president’s international agenda. But how have those tariffs impacted Pennsylvania? By one estimate from Trade Partnership Worldwide, Pennsylvanians paid roughly $4 billion in elevated costs over the lifetime of the new tariffs. The state’s small businesses alone absorbed an estimated $1.6 billion of that burden, according to a Senate report.
The Supreme Court’s ruling has been welcomed by most of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation along partisan lines. Reps. Dwight Evans and Brendan Boyle have framed the ruling as a constitutional correction, arguing that Congress is the only entity with the power to levy tariffs on countries. Republican Senator Dave McCormick has expressed disappointment, saying that the tariffs are a necessary tool for protecting Pennsylvania workers and national security. An exception to the party rule was Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who said the ruling “validates his own opposition to tariffs that weren’t narrowly tailored”.
So, what happens now? The economic aftermath of the tariffs is yet unknown, and complicated. An economist from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School estimates that consumers paid around $800 more last year due to tariff-related price hikes, but warned that uncertainty around the topic in the future can continue to suppress investment and raise costs for small American businesses. The question of refunding more than $200 billion in tariff revenue collected also remains unsettled, and the case now goes to a lower court.
During Trump’s State of the Union speech, he nodded to a potential deal with tech companies where they’ll be required to produce their own power to avoid crippling the grid for average Americans. Governor Shapiro has long been on the AI grind, enticing a $20 million investment from Amazon and more from giants Google and Microsoft to Pennsylvania. It seems that he’s on the same messaging path as the president—though the two rarely see eye to eye—in terms of rising energy costs. “Pay for your own power, so it’s not saddling local businesses or homeowners with higher costs,” he told POLITICO in an interview last week. The reality of how the AI and data center boom will play out in practice for constituents, unions, and business leaders isn’t clear yet, but it’ll be a subject to watch as we move into the midterms and then 2028.
🔥 What We’re Watching
Did You Know? It may feel like the weather has been chillier than normal in Pennsylvania, and it has—but the coldest day on record was January 5th, 1904, when the temperature plummeted to an insane -42 degrees.
Till next time,